I made the above while trying to help my head through automating the process of selling one of my service oriented products. I hope you find it useful. Perspective on what’s going on is always valuable to me.
It got me back to the concept of automation within my business so I can free time to build up other lacking pieces. Time has been a pretty high priority to me while balancing a quasi flexible 9-5, upcoming wedding, and growing online business. In my head, it plays out like this.
Sweet, I have a surge of purchases, clients and traction, how do I sustain it, and offer more to the growing list of interested people? I need to build more and finish the ideas I started, but where will I find the time?
Side Note: Something I skipped when starting my business I wish I hadn’t was keeping a functional e-mail list of every user I ever came in contact with. I used to perform a service, get paid, and forget that person existed. Now, almost %50 of people I contact 6 months after doing some initial work need more when contacted, but wouldn’t otherwise contact me first. Start a list, have varying stages of communication. I do this now through linking Mailchimp to eJunkie, but it can be as simple as creating a folder or label in your e-mail, your likely first point of contact, and throwing the conversation in a folder.
Support, delivery of work, and e-mail response is such a barrier to business expansion when you’re time is limited. How can you eliminate or minimize time spent so you can put a few extra hours into other areas or developing a new product without much overhead?
Business Systems
Well, there’s always outsourcing, but internally your business systems at the base level need to be sharp. I don’t mean other systems you use to build your website, or sell stuff. I am hinting more at a naming scheme for all your internal documentation, or laying out a map for good customer management. Automation and streamlining is a heavy concept here, if you’re selling a product, your eyes will likely be more on customer satisfaction and support, or answering questions about your product once someone has it. This is in the trenches stuff, you need to have some live customers to test your systems.
Considerations in Finding Automation in Your Business
Can you create a FAQ?
Can you create a landing page for people with questions with a form that goes to a specific e-mail address?
Can you call up someone for feedback?
Is there a group you can join to evaluate you?
Does the e-mail have a specific subject line so you know immediately how to handle it?
At checkout, do you capture their e-mail address in an e-mail list or some other way so the customer takes on an identity, not just a cheap transaction?
Do you have a template of e-mails you can modify on topics you get contacted about often?
In my case of mixed service based products, I make sure to have my users fill out a form that send me a specific e-mail with information, and also automatically replies back to the user with a link to schedule time with me if applicable, relevant resources with answers to questions %50 of my users have, and a form to fill out about their project. I have this form on a salespage on my website. I do this even if they’ve superseded the original form and contacted originally me through e-mail, phone, twitter or otherwise. Get people into your system, and make the system work for you so you can expand.
You’ll likely need some experience before you can anticipate needs to delicately pre-address concerns, that’s the first part about validating a product or business.
To streamline workflow, I’m testing putting a set sales link for an empty checkout page where the user puts in a price mentioned for service (not a product) in my agreements, this way I skip over generating an invoice and instead it’s an unchanging link I include in an e-mail or PDF agreement.
Right now, these things may not be an end game solution, but finding avenues to automate and streamline now can open you up to build your business to greater scale where you can hire someone to take care of an element, or pay that $50 a month service to take something else off your plate.
I know that’s the shift I’m having in growth, and the wall I see a lot of other business owners hit.
My Business in a Folder (Click to Enlarge)
You have an unlimited capacity, but you have to find it. Keep on hustling!